Stories Before Sept 2016

19 days after his girlfriend and a station Photographer were gunned down on live television, WDBJ Anchor Chris Hurst returned to the air.

In a message during the 6 p.m. newscast on WDBJ, Hurst spoke of his love for Reporter Alison Parker and said “the healing has begun.”

Hurst and Parker’s father Andy were the public faces of the community’s mourning in the days immediately following the murders of Parker and her colleague cameraman Adam Ward.

Ward was engaged to Melissa Ott, a producer at WDBJ. And Parker was dating Hurst, a 6 and 11 p.m. anchor at the station. The couple were living together and talking about getting married, but they’d kept the relationship somewhat quiet.

The morning of the shooting, Hurst tweeted, “We were together almost nine months. It was the best nine months of our lives.”

Hurst also focused on love when he spoke on the air on Monday night. Love can smother and conquer hate, he told his viewers.

“Alison and Adam projected a love and peace into our world that can never been taken, even if they were taken from us,” he said. “She and I fell in love here in the newsroom, as we fondly watched each other care deeply about our communities and try to make them better… and safer. That’s what drove her as she came into your home every morning.”

“Don’t forget their love,” he added. “It will fuel us the rest of our days.”